Have you ever had the feeling that your child is getting way smarter than you when riddles or homework from his or her school left you stumped and speechless? We have. Try to solve these 8 simple puzzles that elementary school children seem to be able to solve in an instant.

Puzzle 1. A parking spot

This simple puzzle was given to first graders in Hong Kong as an entrance exam. Kids cracked it in just a few seconds.

Puzzle 2. The four-digit numbers

Preschoolers can crack this one in five to 10 minutes; educated programmers in an hour!

Puzzle 3. A numerical pyramid

Third graders in Singapore solve brain teasers and numerical puzzles like this one in a couple of minutes.

Puzzle 4. A box of chocolates

This one is from an American 12-year-old student’s math worksheet. There are 50 chocolate candies in the box. 30 of them come with caramel filling, 25 with coconut, 10 of them are two-flavored candies with caramel and coconut, and the rest of them are just chocolate candies with no filling. Question: Which diagram reflects the box of chocolates correctly?

Puzzle 5. Which way this bus is driving?

Puzzle 6. How can this be?

Puzzle 7. The village idiot

Visitors to a scenic mountain village were often amused by the village idiot. When offered a choice between a shiny 50-cent piece and a crumpled $5 bill, he would always happily choose the half-dollar. The bill was worth ten times as much, so why did he never choose it?

Answers

1.The answer is 87. Just turn the picture upside-down in your head. 2.The answer is 2581 = 2. Try to count the number of circles in each 4-digit number. For example, 6 has one circle, 8 has 2 of them, and 6889 has 6! Got it? 3.Answer: D = 1345; E = 2440. 4.The bottom numbers are connected to the upper level. First, add the numbers in the bottom line: 198 + 263 = 461. 5.Now you see that the number you got is greater than its neighbor above: 461 > 446.Subtract these numbers: 461 — 446 = 15.If you check the rest of the pyramid, you’ll get 15 in each case.Ta-da! Here’s the key. 6.The answer is diagram B. It’s just some simple math:How many caramel candies are there in the box? 30 — 10 = 20.And how many coconut candies are there? 25 — 10 = 15.Now you can find out how many plain chocolate candies were in the box! 50 — (20 + 15 +10) = 5.

7.The bus is moving to the left because the door is on the other side.To solve this, you’ll need to imagine the number 29 in Roman digits. That way, it’ll look like this: XXIX. Now you simply remove I and get XXX, which, in the Arabic system, means 30.

8.The so-called village idiot was smart enough to realize that as long as he kept choosing a 50-cent piece, people would keep offering him the choice. If he took the $5 bill once, the stream of coins would stop rolling in.